Blood Oaths and Cows
by idealskeptic
Summary: Set some vague time after Lady Midnight when Rafael and Max Lightwood-Bane are still very small boys, one of their fathers is asked to swear a blood oath. One of their fathers gets a lecture on nicknames. And two brothers decide it shall be their lifes' work to acquire cows. Who are their fathers to say no to cows? The blood oath is a little serious, the rest is pure fun fluff!
1. Chapter 1

"Right feet, Daddy?"

Alec Lightwood looked down at his son's feet and shook his head. "Sorry, buddy. That's not even a matching pair of shoes."

Grumbling, Max stared at his feet and debated whether he wanted to wear his Captain America sneakers or his race car sneakers. He settled on race car and kicked the other one off, walking away lopsided in search of the other half of the pair. When he got back to the living room, shoes on the proper feet and Velcroed snugly in place, he saw Rafe dancing around while watching the lights on his light-up sneakers. Max stayed quiet because, for a Shadowhunter, Rafe was awfully clumsy and it was a sure thing he was going to trip if he didn't look up from his feet. He knew he wasn't supposed to laugh when people fell but his brother had laughed when he fell off the toilet just last night.

" _Mierda_!" Rafe exclaimed as he crashed into a wingback chair and fell backward onto his butt.

Max looked at his daddy, waiting impatiently for Rafe to get in trouble like he had for calling the guy on the corner who never gave him mustard with his pretzel a 'bastard.' "Daddy!" he yelped when nobody got in trouble. "Rafe said a bad word!"

Knowing he had said a word he wasn't supposed to say, the older boy gave a vehement shake of his head. "No, Daddy, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did," Max shot back, "and you know it!"

"Hey," Alec said, coming to stand between them before somebody tackled somebody. "What did he say, Max?"

Max felt this might be a trick, one that would get him in trouble too. He pursed his lips and shook his head. "No, I'll tell Papa when him gets home."

His father raised an eyebrow. "Why tell Papa and not me? Maybe you shouldn't tattle on your brother at all, if you don't want him to tattle when you do something wrong."

"He did!" he cried indignantly. "I didn't get to eat my pretzel 'cuz Rafe tolded Papa I called the pretzel guy a b…"

He thought Magnus could have mentioned that event, just as fair warning for something that their sons would, there should not have been any doubt, argue about later. Careful not to punish Max for something Magnus already had, he asked again why he was waiting to tell his papa.

"Him knows Spanish," Max said, in a tone that said the answer really was obvious, and should have been to Alec.

Alec rubbed his temples, silently cursing the nest of demons that had kept him from his Spanish studies. It was a lame excuse, even considering that they were demons, because he was just not good at learning Spanish. Any language, really. Sitting down and studying verbs and conjugates, or whatever those things the Nephilim never really bothered to teach themselves, even in their native language, was not his strong suit. And he hadn't ever thought he'd need to know Spanish swear words because his five year old did. "Fine," he said, with total resignation. "Wait until Papa gets home and tell him."

"Can we go to the playground now?" Max asked, more than ready to move on with his plans for the afternoon.

"Get your coats and we'll go. I'll text Papa to meet us there when he's done at work."

They ran off to find the coats that matched the shoes they'd picked, both of them following Magnus' example when it came to clothes and matching.

Alec collected the things he needed for a trip outside the apartment, because even going to the playground required more gear than going to fight a nest of demons. He was almost done, and heard his sons' footsteps running back toward him, when a gust of wind blew through the room. With his hand on the hilt of his dagger, he turned around slowly. His hand wouldn't move when he tried to lift the dagger.

"Promise not to throw that at me and I'll unfreeze you."

The young woman standing in front of him, whose arrival must have caused the gust of wind, had downy silver wings fluttering gently on her back.

"Who are you?"

She sighed, pulling her wings in tight beneath the black cape she wore. "Of course you would ask that, Alexander Lightwood, and I'll tell you but I won't unfreeze you until I have your promise not to throw that dagger at me."

"Are you going to hurt my children?"

"Not even if you refuse to stop asking me questions before I can even introduce myself. I do promise you that."

"I won't throw the dagger at you," he promised, because he wasn't really in any position to argue. "You can take it, if you want."

She waved her fingers and unfroze him, letting him keep his dagger. "I am Regina."

"No last name?" he asked, not moving even though he could.

"No one had a last name when I was born," she said with a wink and a grin.

"You're a warlock."

"Perceptive. I am, as a matter of fact, the Most High Warlock, Mistress of the Spiral Labyrinth." She gave a tiny curtsey and watched for his reaction.

His breath had caught in his chest when she gave her titles. No Nephilim had ever seen the Mistress of the Spiral Labyrinth, who had ruled the warlocks… forever, as far as the Nephilim knew. Most people thought that it was impossible for her to leave. Alec realized that might just be typical Nephilim hubris. "Magnus isn't here," he said, on the off chance she wanted to see him. He wondered too if Magnus had ever seen her.

"And that is why I am," Regina said, gesturing toward the red suede sofa. "May I?"

He nodded and sat on the black suede sofa across from her. He saw Rafael and Max peeking around the corner from the hallway, having stopped short when they saw a stranger in their home. He swung his gaze back to Regina.

"Still won't hurt them," she said, "though perhaps they'd be less frightened if you introduced us?"

How do you introduce the most powerful warlock in the world? One who randomly showed up and has yet to say why? Alec settled on something mundane. "This is Regina, boys. She's… Papa's boss."

"Papa isn't here," Max pointed out.

Alec scratched his ear. "She's… working on a surprise for him. It's okay. Will you guys just… go read some Dr. Seuss books to Chairman Meow?"

Trusting him, they nodded and ran off together.

He turned back to Regina. "Why are you here?"

She twitched the hem of her cape over her like a blanket and took a deep breath. "There is some… concern about Max being raised in the, let's say, nest of vipers that the Nephilim can be toward our kind."

Careful not to take offense, he aimed to be firm and convincing. "Are they your concerns? You do lead the Children of Lilith now, unchallenged since she was so badly weakened, so it's your concern, or lack of, that I care most about."

Taking time to choose her words carefully, she made cups of lapsang souchong tea appear for them both. "They are my concerns in that, as I am sure you know well with the recent rise and demise of the Cohort, a small issue among a few can too quickly blossom into a self-defeating plague upon a group of people."

"Are you asking me to give up Max?"

Regina smiled and made an approving noise as she sipped her tea. "I had heard you were very direct, and I do appreciate that in a creature. Especially a Nephilim. Tell me, Alexander Lightwood, if I said that I was asking you to give up the warlock child, would you?"

"No."

"Because of Magnus?"

"Because of Max. Because of me. Because of Magnus, and of Rafael." He tried to calm himself down, to be steady and even in front of someone he knew, knew deep down, could decide his future. "Max is my son. I am Max's father. A father fights for his son. That's how it works. No matter who the enemy is, no matter how powerful. I fight for Max."

She'd heard he was passionate and intense, but the truth in his eyes helped convince her it was not an act. There was little, if anything, half-hearted in this Nephilim's devotion to a warlock child. "And the Clave? They accept that the child is your son in all but blood?"

"Consul Penhallow does, most of the Clave do. Some will never accept me or my family," he admitted with total truth and no regret. "I'll keep Max, and Rafael, away from them. There are more good people than bad, and the good are the ones who matter."

Regina stood with a flourish of her cape, her cup empty already. "I am immensely satisfied by your words, Alexander Lightwood. As I imagine you might agree, though, there are always those who need to see something to believe something so I wonder if you would swear an oath to protect the warlock child from abuse and discrimination and poisoning, mentally speaking, by the Nephilim?"

Alec nodded. "I will."

She raised an eyebrow at his answer. "You will. Without knowing what happens if you break the oath? I am a warlock, a powerful one, so you must expect some magical clause."

"I do. It doesn't matter." He shrugged his shoulders as he stood in front of her. "I won't break the oath."

Regina got to her feet and fluttered her wings with gentle purpose. A roll sheet of parchment formed in the air in front of Alec as she held out a small silver pin. "Prick your finger with this pin and let eight drops of blood fall onto the parchment. Do not touch the parchment. Do this, and I have your oath that the warlock child will not be harmed, mentally or physically, by the Nephilim so long as you draw breath."

Alec pricked his finger and held it, dripping blood slowly but surely, over the parchment.

Regina waved her fingers through the air and the parchment flew into the folds of her cape. "You may tell Magnus I was here," she said, her wings unfurling, "but he may not yell at me for coming without his knowledge. I shall be very cross if he does."

He chuckled, relieved that it was over so easily. "I'll make sure he doesn't yell at you."

She waved her wings at Max and Rafe, who'd crept back and peered around the corner. "Be well, Alexander Lightwood," she said, turning to him, "and I mean no offense when I say I hope I won't need to see you ever again."


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, you did what now?"

Alec rolled his eyes and bent to retired Rafael's shoelaces. "I told you three times, Magnus, please don't make me say it again."

Rafael was pleased to be eavesdropping on this conversation, because his daddy was finally saying that to somebody besides him and Max. Feeling generous, and a little bit excited by what he'd seen, because he had seen it all after Chairman Meow was taking a nap so he and Max got bored and curious fast, he told his papa the story. "A lady with cool feathers came and Daddy said she was your boss. Her and Daddy talked fast, then Daddy bleeded on some paper, and then the lady with cool feathers left. That's what happened, Papa."

"Thank you, my _frambuesita_."

The boy scowled. "You can call Max blueberry but you don't have to call me raspberry. I don't have to be a berry at all."

Alec chuckled at the exasperated look on Magnus' face as Rafe ran back to the slides where he and Max were playing with the daughters of two werewolves in Maia's pack.

"It's rude to laugh, sweet pea," he retorted.

He did not think it was rude at all, arguing through semi-contained laughter that Rafe had asked him not to call him raspberry before. It was good natured, because Alec had heard his Nephilim son's confession that he really did like having a nickname from his papa, he just liked to tease his papa back. There wasn't any way Alec couldn't fully endorse that.

Magnus stalked toward the slides and waved to get Rafe's attention. "You don't really mind if I call you 'my _frambuesita_ , do you?"

A grin flickered on the little boy's face before he tried to get it under control, then he gave up and just smiled sweetly. "No, Papa _Pollo_ , I don't mind at all."

Alec cracked up as Magnus spluttered. Rafe had said he liked to tease back but calling him Papa Chicken was one of the first times he'd actually followed through on joke. The look of pure joy on his face at the effect his response had was something Alec knew he, and Magnus, would cherish forever. And then the tables were quickly turned when Max joined in the nickname fun by declaring that Alec could be Daddy Dum-Dum.

Magnus wondered what stories Conor and Jo would take back to Maia and just how hard she would laugh about it, given how hysterically amusing she already seemed to find his little family.

"Let them play," Alec said, deciding to tackle the Daddy Dum-Dum issue later, not that he really mind all that much. "You aren't actually upset that I swore the oath, are you?"

"Upset that she came without my knowledge, yes. Upset that you swore it, no… because of course you would swear it," he paused to take a breath and bump his fingers under Alec's chin, "that's why I love you, Alexander."

He blew out a breath and tried not to get sucked into something romantic in the middle of the playground. "Your eyes don't play along with the rest of your poker face, Magnus," he said instead, "so what is it?"

Not wanting to argue about but desperately not wanting Alec to swear any other blood oaths without proper supervision, Magnus searched hard for some middle ground that didn't sound like an impatient, overprotective lecture. He realized he probably looked like he was daydreaming, which was unfortunate but not really the point of taking the time to say the right thing. "I just… you really… why…" He blew out an exasperated breath and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his Brooks Brothers jacket. "How could you take a blood oath without asking about clauses, about what happens if you break the oath… about how you might accidentally break the oath?"

Alec had considered that, and he wasn't worried. Anymore. Not really. He wouldn't admit to Magnus that he was worried, a little worried. That much he knew for sure. He pulled a folded piece of paper from the back pocket of his jeans. "Here," he said, holding it out. "I found this in my sweatshirt pocket after she left but it's in some language I can't read."

He took the paper and started to read, a process which took a minute because it was a demonic language so archaic he hadn't studied it since the early 1700s. He remembered enough, though, of Ragnor's teachings, to gape in surprise after he read it once and to laugh after the second time through.

Glowering at the laughter, Alec crossed his arms over his chest. ""It's rude to laugh, Papa Chicken," he muttered.

Magnus composed himself, more or less, and read slowly to translate.

 _There is no blood oath, Magnus. I wouldn't do that without talking to you. I will tell everyone that there was, because our kind need to know that we can trust Alexander Lightwood, some need to be reminded of that. I need you to know that I never doubted his dedication to the boy he calls son, not for a moment. Don't screw it up!_

 _Regina_

Alec felt better because apparently Magnus was laughing more at himself than anything else. Though he did wonder, a little, how even the Mistress of the Spiral Labyrinth knew about the other relationships Magnus had screwed up. Those insecurities still crept over him sometimes, not often and they never stayed for long, but they were there. And they were easier to move on when there was something to be distracted with.

And children were always distracting.

"Max Michael Lightwood-Bane, if you jump off the slide one more time, you will not be allowed on another slide until you're ten," Magnus said, the warning clear in his voice.

Max called his bluff and whizzed down the metal sliding, jumping off the bottom, instead of the top where he might risk a slide ban, and running to his fathers. "Papa, Daddy! An idea just pooped into my head! A good one!"

"Ideas that poop into your head usually are good ones," Magnus chuckled.

Alec tried to keep a straight face, an attempt made harder by the adorably baffled look on Max's face. "What's your idea, Max? Does it involve ice cream?"

His little blue face lit up. "Yes! Ice cream too!"

"Smart," Magnus sighed, bumping his elbow against Alec's. "Adding ice cream to whatever idea he already had."

It was a tiny, forgivable error, Alec thought, and he crouched in front his first son. "What's the idea, buddy?"

He took a deep breath and organized the words in his head. "I'm gonna buy a cow!"

The werewolf family grabbed their daughters and slipped away, wanting to get out before their children announced intentions to buy farm animals thanks to peer influence.

Alec stared at his son.

Magnus blinked in shock.

Rafael ran over and skidded to a stop beside his brother. "Me too!"

"No!" Magnus yelped, still alarmed but now more focused. "No. Nobody is buying a cow. Why would you even want to buy a cow? What would you do with a cow? Do you know how much a cow costs? We are not adopting a cow."

"Two!" Rafe corrected him.

"We are not buying two cows," he amended.

"Magnus, stop saying cow," Alec muttered, before turning to his boys with what he hoped was a patient, not startled look. "That was your idea, Max? That you want to buy a cow?"

Max nodded, and then corrected him, saying the idea was to buy a cow, not want to buy one. "And have ice cream."

Magnus muttered something sarcastic about the importance of not forgetting the ice cream, then swore in Chthonic when Alec kicked him in the ankle so fast the boys didn't see it, scolding him for his sarcasm. The kick helped him be calm enough to let Alec take the lead on Nobody Is Buying A Cow, and he relaxed so he could watch how it went, and be amused by it all.

"We live here," Alec started hesitantly. "You don't think a cow would like it here, do you?"

"Maybe," Rafe drawled warily.

"Have you ever seen a cow in New York? And don't say the ones at the Central Park Zoo."

The boys were momentarily stumped. And then they said 'please' in perfect, adorable unison. "There is cows by Poppy Luke's farm," Max pointed out, determined to have a cow. "We can have them."

"Those cows belong to someone else," Magnus said, lifting Rafe as Alec lifted Max. "Besides, those cows live on a farm. Cows like to live on farms."

Alec groaned in anticipation.

"Then you and Daddy buy a farm!" Rafe chirped excitedly. "And me and Max will buy cows!"

Magnus almost said 'of course you will' but caught himself just before he did, just before they would surely take that as a promise that farms and cows would soon be bought. It was a very close call.

They started walking toward home, carrying their sons. The boys chattered about cows while their fathers tried to figure out how a cow fixation developed and, far more importantly, how to get rid of it.

Once home, Magnus took the boys for a bath while Alec did laundry and called Luke for advice. After a surprisingly short conversation, he had what he was calling a Plan. It wasn't anything firm and, if he was honest with himself, it had just as much a chance of backfiring as it did of succeeding - succeeding being two small boys no longer wanting to buy cows - but it was more than he'd had before. He met his family in the bedroom the boys shared and, communicating with Magnus using eyes alone, sat down at the foot of Rafe's bed to tell them the plan.

"We gonna buy cows?" Max said, interrupting before Alec had said more than that there was a plan.

Alec shook his head. "No, and don't interrupt. Since you mentioned Poppy Luke, I called him…"

"Him gonna buy cows?"

Magnus coughed to cover a laugh.

"No, he's not buying cows," Alec sighed, "but he did call his neighbor… the one has already bought cows… and if we go to visit Poppy Luke, Mr. Hawking will let us visit his cows. And we can visit them whenever we like, if you still like cows after you see them up close and personal."

"Then we gonna buy them?"

"Visit," Magnus repeated, before Alec caved. "Then we can visit them. Visit. But no cows without going to sleep so everybody under the covers. Now!"


	3. Chapter 3

Sixty hours later, Magnus could have said the exact number of minutes… and the exact number of times he'd found himself hearing and/or talking about cows, the Lightwood-Bane family was in a newly acquired SUV and leaving New York City for rural upstate. It'd been a long two and a half days. Extremely long, if Magnus had describe it, and now the stage was set for three days of farm life.

Being a connoisseur of classic, retro sitcoms, Magnus was expecting to feel a little like Oliver Wendell Douglas in Green Acres.

The Douglases didn't have kids, though, so he hoped that change in the equation would work in his favor.

"It could be worse," Alec said quietly as Magnus drove, not wanting to disrupt the boys as they watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the portable DVD players.

"I'm not complaining about anything, Alexander," he said, magicking some trendier sunglasses onto his face. "Not unless we end up owning cows, in which case, you can find yourself a nice merman to settle down with because that's how life will be."

Alec thought that it was more like Magnus would end up giving in somehow, but he couldn't say just how so he kept quiet. "Luke and Jocelyn are there now and said they'll stay long enough to introduce us to the neighbor, but then we can have the place to ourselves if we want."

"You told them that wasn't necessary?"

"I did. I figure the boys will badger them into staying anyway." He knew he spoke the absolute truth. His sons had loved Robert and they adored Maryse. Somehow, and he wasn't sure Magnus could explain it either, Rafael and Max had adopted Luke and Jocelyn as their sort of surrogate grandparents. Neither Alec nor Magnus minded and neither Luke nor Jocelyn seemed to mind at all. In fact, they seemed to adore the boys as any good grandparent would, to the point that Isabelle had hinted that Maryse was, sometimes and always carefully, jealous.

Nobody screamed in the enclosed space of the car until they arrived at Luke's farm, then the screams were ones of happiness when the boys realized they'd arrived. And then a brief but passionate shouting match and scuffle ensued over who Poppy Luke would get out of the car first.

Ever the fair surrogate grandfather, Luke settled the disagreement by unbuckling Max from his seat while Rafe got himself out. He told them both to stay in the car, then stand beside each other at the door. And he lifted them out at the same time.

Trying to put them down on the packed dirt driveway was another story, since neither one of them let go of either his neck or his hips, which they'd wrapped their legs around.

"I'd apologize or, you know, try to pry them off," Magnus said to Luke in greeting, "but you seem to be enjoying this rather a lot."

"Don't you dare try to pry them off," Luke chuckled, carrying the boys toward the house.

Magnus grabbed Alec by the shoulder, causing him to drop the bag he was getting out of the car but not caring about it. "Look how much he likes them, and they like him, Alec," he said, pitching his voice just low enough that Luke and the boys couldn't hear him. "I wonder if we couldn't finally get that weekend away together."

"Maybe," he agreed, being vague because he had his secrets to keep for now. "This weekend we're focused on cows, though. In case you forgot."

He gave a weary sigh and grabbed a couple bags. "I promise that I did not forgot."

They'd expected their sons to be eager to run directly off to meet the neighbor and his cows but they were already sitting at the kitchen table with pieces of apple pie in front of them. "Can they have ice cream with their pie?" Jocelyn asked. "They said they ate their lunch so they could have dessert. I should have verified that with you, I realize now."

"They did eat their lunch," Alec said, "even the vegetables so pie and ice cream is fine."

As Magnus and Alec carried their things, and more toys than a child should really need for three days in the countryside, to the bedrooms where they would stay, they heard the boys detailing just how they planned to buy cows. They dawdled putting the stuff away, setting up the camp beds the boys liked to sleep on, and only returned to the kitchen when they thought their absence might be noted by someone.

Luke immediately gestured for them to follow him out onto the side porch while the boys helped Jocelyn wash the dishes they'd used.

"How do I make them do that at home?" Magnus said, watching the very strange sight as he went outside.

"No idea," Luke chuckled, "but that's not why I pulled you out here."

"By the Angel, don't tell me you've agreed to buy them cows," Alec groaned.

"I love them, but I'm not that much of a pushover. No, not that. When I asked Hawking if the boys could see his animals, I didn't realize his farm is actually for sale so…"

Magnus closed his eyes. "You think they're going to want to buy a farm."

"I think you should know that they might get that idea in their heads."

They thanked him for the warning and stayed outside while Max and Rafe finished helping in the kitchen. Magnus looked at Alec, and saw him staring into the distance. He knew what it meant, that look of longing in Alec's depthless blue eyes. And he realized he was okay with it. "Let's look at the place first, alright?" he said softly, reaching out to twist their fingers together.

Blinking in some surprise, he focused on Magnus. "What?"

"Let's see the Hawking farm, see the damn cows… pretend we don't already know that we're going to buy the farm."

"We are?" He wanted to, wanted to have some place Max would play and be himself without being glamoured. He hadn't expected Magnus to be on board before he even asked.

"Aren't we?" he said, turning the question back.

"You'd live somewhere so… rural?"

Magnus chuckled at his word choice and nodded. "I'd live in a yurt on the plains of Outer Mongolia if it made you happy," he said with an even balance of dramatic honesty. "Besides, I said once that you're my first many things and, well, I haven't lived on a farm since I was a boy and I've never owned so…"

"Papa! Daddy!" The boys burst through the screen door so close together they were almost running as one. "Time to go!"

So they went.

The boys ran ahead of the adults, picking wildflowers along the path and presenting them to Jocelyn with all the shyness of two little boys who adored their grandmother. They were, tentatively, starting to call her Moppy Joce, because Max seemed unable, or unwilling, to say Jocelyn.

"Huh."

"Deep thoughts," Magnus said in response to Alec's noise.

"Oh, shut up," he muttered with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "I was just thinking…"

"Do you need to sit down and rest?"

Luke coughed to cover a laugh as Alec punched him in the arm, obviously careful to do if fast enough that the kids didn't see it.

"I was just thinking," Alec repeated, making like Magnus hadn't spoken, "that since the boys have my mom… it's almost like Luke and Jocelyn are your surrogate parents. Which is good since, you know, your father is a Prince of Hell."

"What?! Is he really?!" Magnus stuck his tongue out at Alec and turned to Luke. "I'm not calling you dad, even if you aren't a Prince of Hell."

"Please don't change that," Luke chuckled, pretending, not very well, to be offended by the idea. "We have grandkids and I was never desperate for a son. No offense."

Magnus took none and the matter was dropped because they arrived at the fence, really more of a gate on a semi-worn path that could have been walked around as easily as it was gone through. They went through the gate, because it seemed polite, and walked along the path as it led from a stream up a sloping lawn to a rambling old farmhouse. Rafael and Max got suddenly shy and grabbed hands, holding onto each other as they each held onto a father who was not the same as them.

"Mr. Hawking, ma'am," Luke said to the elderly couple at the bottom of the steps. "These are the friends I was telling you about, Alec and Magnus, Max and Rafael. Guys, this is Mr. and Mrs. Hawking."

"Or Linda and Bert, as we keep telling him to call us," the man said as he crouched to the kids' level. "I hear you two want to meet some cows?"

"Buy some d'em cows," Max corrected him.

Bert exchanged a look with Luke. "Well, sir, I'm afraid my cows aren't for sale."

"None of d'em?" he asked, sounding more than a little brokenhearted. "How many you got?"

"Almost three."

"Almost?" Alec blurted out, unable to stop himself before either kid said it. "I'm sorry, but how do you have _almost_ three cows?"

Linda made what Magnus thought could best be described as a Proud Mama noise. "Clara's expecting," she explained.

"'Pecting what?" Rafe asked.

"A baby cow," Alec replied, his voice colored with the weary knowledge that they'd soon be buying a pregnant cow, probably.

"Can we see? Please?"

Bert and Linda said they could and the odd little group made their way from the farmhouse to a barn painted the faded red that seemed to signify a farm that was loved just enough to keep going. It hadn't been converted into a guest house or a home office. The barn was a barn, with Clara in a stall beside Cow #2 who was named Belle. There were three chickens and a rooster, a barn cat that Linda thought might be pregnant too, two Shetland ponies - a black one named Cinder and brown one named Cinnamon, and space for more.

"You said they had cows," Magnus said to Luke through the corner of his mouth, "not an entire working farm."

Luke ignored him.

Clara and Belle were all well and good, in the eyes of the boys who came wanting to buy cows, but it was the ponies that seemed sized just for them that really caught their eyes. Max literally fell over in excitement when offered a ride on the little horses.

And Alec knew then that it was going to be the start of something good, even if he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by what they might be getting into. It'd be fine, he was sure.


	4. Chapter 4

It became clear over the three days that the Lightwood-Bane family spent at the Hawkings' farm, and at Poppy Luke's, that Bert and Linda wanted to sell the farm and retire to Arizona and yet they also did not want to give up the farm they'd owned for fifty years and retire to Arizona. It was a conundrum, more for the Hawkings than for the Lightwood-Banes, since Rafael and Max were none the wise to the possibilities.

It was when Linda admitted that it was the work of keeping up with the farm and the big, old house that an idea started to come together in Alec's mind. It came fully together when Bert gave them a tour of the whole property, via a ride in a wagon pulled by his tractor, and they saw a cottage that Linda said they'd meant to move into when their kids were grown and gone.

Alec looked at Magnus, communicating with his eyes before he spoke up while they picnicked beside a pond. "We still need to be in New York a lot of the time," he said to Linda and Bert, "but we love your farm so… would you want to, be willing to stay on… for awhile, and help us learn how to do this?"

"Yes," Magnus agreed, to Alec's relief. "You said the house is too big and that you meant to move to the cottage so you could do that. Sort of… transition to your retirement in Arizona instead of leaping into it."

They exchanged a long look, then looked at the younger couple. "That wouldn't be strange for you?" Linda asked. "We could leave, go visit friends and family when you're going to be here."

"You could do that," Alec offered, accepting a cup of tea from her, "but we do want to buy everything that's here now. That includes the animals and, to be honest, we need have no idea how to care for animals."

"None?" Bert said, looking a little skeptical.

"We have a cat," Magnus said with a shrug, one not meant to downplay the importance of Chairman Meow in their lives but to display their total lack of knowledge about how to care for ponies and cows and all the other creatures that might show up on a farm. "Our cat is very much a man of leisure now and I'm absolutely certain that he is nothing like the animals here."

The older man chuckled and nodded. "I suppose not, being a city cat and whatnot. Give Linda and I a minute to talk this over?"

"You can have more than a minute," Alec offered.

Linda shook her head. "We won't need it. Just… you're sure you're not taking pity on a couple of old farts who can let go and move on?"

"You're only as old as you let yourself feel," Magnus said, meaning it more than Linda and Bert would ever know. "And yes, we are absolutely sure of that. Don't forget, too, that you can always back out of selling the farm to us at all."

"Your sweet boys would be terribly disappointed."

Alec winked, glancing at where the boys played on the sloping lawn with the barn cat and her kittens. "We haven't told them we're trying to buy the place. When it's a done deal, if it becomes a done deal, we'll tell them then."

"Speaking as a former parent," Bert said with a chuckle, "that's a very smart idea. You buying the place is a done deal, though, so tell them whenever you like."

Linda nodded in firm agreement with her husband.

So Magnus and Alec left them alone to talk over the final details while they went to the lawn, just in time to be tackled by the boys. And a request to acquire more cats.

"How about a farm?" Magnus said.

Rafe stared at him in confusion.

"Huh?" Max asked more bluntly.

Alec laughed. "Bert and Linda are going to move to Arizona, soon," he explained, "and they want to sell their home. To us. Would you like that?"

Max blinked slowly, the glamour Magnus had cast on him making him look to the mundanes like Rafael's biological little brother.

"What about Clara and Belle?" Rafe asked worriedly. "And Cinnamon and Cinder? Is they getting homeless?"

"Nope," Magnus said, sitting in the grass and letting Rafael sit on him while Alec did the same with Max. "No, if we bought this place, we'd buy Cinnamon and Cinder, Clara and Belle, the baby cow, the cat and the kittens…"

Max yelped in abrupt dismay. "What about Chip and Dale, Papa? What about Chip and Dale, Daddy?"

"Sorry?" Alec said, blinking in confusion. "Who?"

"The baby fuzzy things," Max explained, giving the impression that it was all the explanation needed. "You know."

Neither Alec nor Magnus knew, so they took the initiative and carried their sons to where Bert and Linda sat on the porch, looking like they'd finished their discussion and were settled in whatever they decided. Alec asked about Chip and Dale before he asked what they decided.

"Sorry, who?" Bert said.

"Baby fuzzy things," Magnus replied, sighing warily.

Bert blinked.

"We show you," Rafe said, hopping out of Magnus' arms and dragging him along by the hand.

"Oh dear," Linda said as they skirted the edge of the pond and headed down a slightly overgrown path. "I hadn't realized they'd come down this way and saw the babies. I'm sorry, I should have told you."

"Baby whats?" Magnus asked, still wary.

"Donkeys. We're keeping two baby donkeys for some friends until they find somewhere forever for them."

Conversation halted briefly when both boys gave earsplitting squeals of delight when they spotted two tiny, fuzzy baby donkeys in a small pen beside a tiny barn.

Alec sighed. "What about here?" he said, seeing Magnus nod in agreement beside him as they watched the boys stand at the fence and call to the donkeys. "Would your friends agree to their forever home being here? Since Max and Rafael named them and whatnot?"

Bert laughed loud and nodded. "They would, and Linda and I have agreed to your suggestion that we stay on and help you learn the ropes awhile. So we'll teach you how to raise… what are their names, young men?"

"Chip and Dale!" they said in unison. "Like on Mickey Mouse!"

"If there were three, they'd be Huey, Louie, and Dewey," Rafe added.

"Of course," Bert agreed. "What else could they be?"

Magnus blinked in sudden alarm. "There isn't a third one, is there? Also, did you friends already name them?"

"That would be no to both," the older man answered. He looked at the little boys and winked. "You know there are three kittens, though, so maybe you ought to name them Huey, Louie, and Dewey?"

He got two hugs for the suggestion.

Alec knew two of the kittens were female and he wondered which of the three names they would get. It didn't matter. What mattered was that his family was going to have a home where they could be themselves. Bert and Linda would be there sometimes, but he doubted it would be for long and the property was large enough that Max could wear his blue skin and tiny horns freely.

"So," Magnus said, clapping his hands to get the boys' attention, "time for a family vote. Do we buy this farm and all that comes with it? I vote yes. Rafael?"

He jumped to his feet and shouted his agreement.

"Max?"

"Yes!"

"Alexander?"

"Daddy!" both of his sons corrected him.

"Right, sorry," he chuckled. "Daddy?"

"Yes, absolutely," Alec agreed.

It was settled then, and Magnus had already arranged a payment plan with Bert, because buying it outright with cash would raise questions it might be wisest not to answer, so all that was left was for Bert and Linda to move out to the cottage and the Lightwood-Banes to move in to the farmhouse.

Until then, they had nowhere they needed to be so it seemed right to stay and start learning to care for their newly extended animal family.

Rafael and Max had already hurried off after Linda to learn how to make bottles for Chip and Dale,

Alec looked at Magnus as they walked behind, hand in hand. "I didn't actually expect this to turn out like this," he said softly, "but I'm okay with it, very okay with it. Are you?"

"I could not be happier," he said with total honesty, "but I suppose that may change if I end up mucking cow poop out of a barn."

Alec laughed and bumped against his arm. "If Linda and Bert aren't around, you can magic any and all poop away."

And Magnus was suddenly even happier.


End file.
